


Hey Baby How You 'Doin?

by dozierosieposie



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Breakfast, M/M, Pet Names, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-17 08:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15457191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dozierosieposie/pseuds/dozierosieposie
Summary: Team breakfast is an... interesting affair. Tired boys, early morning boyfriend calls, waffles.Anything could happen.





	Hey Baby How You 'Doin?

**Author's Note:**

> My lovely new pal @myrin requested Nurseydex and "pet names". this was honestly supposed to be 500 words... i have no chill.  
> ah well, ask and ye shall receive!  
> also i know the pet names and fines melarky got talked about in [that ask](http://omgcheckplease.tumblr.com/post/174926589197) but this all came out and i got carried away FIGHT ME  
> Hops is my favourite waffle can u tell

Hops seems to be the only morning person on the team. Chowder likes to joke that he’s like a plant; he gets his energy from the sun. He loves to be up, to use the day as much as he can. The morning is the best time of day – everything is fresh and clear. New things are there to be tried, new friends to make, new relationships to test. The world is waking up, inexplicably trying to be better than the day before.

So Hops is an English major. Sue him if mornings are his favourite time of day.

His teammates do not agree.

Team breakfast is never an eloquent affair. Ollie and Wicks are snoring quietly against each other’s shoulders. Chowder is nodding into his porridge, and Nursey doesn’t have any food in front of him; he’s just pouring a terrifying amount of sugar into his coffee. It’s enough to make Hops want to go out and buy him about a thousand tubes of toothpaste, but he just trains his eyes back on his waffles and says nothing.

The table is silent apart from the slow munch of the boys enjoying their breakfast, until Bitty’s phone rings. His previously exhausted face lights up like a beacon as he answers the call.

“Well, good morning honey! How did you sleep?” a slight pause, “Oh, not much, sugar, just breakfast with the boys.” he grins over at their sleepy faces, “You got much planned for today sweetheart?”

Beside Bitty, Hops frowns. “What’s with all the pet names?” On his other side, Chowder looks up, eyes wide.

“You’ve never heard Bitty on the phone with Jack before?” he asks. Hops shakes his head. This is a new experience for him. His little captain is energetic, to say the least, but Hops has never seen him quite like this. He’s chatting happily away to his boyfriend, suddenly wholly unaware of his surroundings. He completely misses his mouth and shovels cereal into his chin, but doesn’t seem to notice that either.

“It’s southern culture,” Nursey mumbles, leaning on his arms across the table, “The pet names. Comes with the territory of being- well, Bitty.”

Hops looks over at his teammates faces; these men have resigned themselves to listening to Bitty gush for the next twenty minutes. He supposes he can’t blame them; Bitty’s obvious love for Jack is adorable, and it gives Hops a warm feeling, but also. It’s a Lot.

“Bitty says we aren’t allowed to fine him ‘cus he’s captain.” Grumbles Dex from beside Nursey. His face is one that has been cheated out of a dryer and is pissed about it, “It’s in the bylaws, apparently, but I went down there, and I swear it wasn’t there before Tuesday.”

He waves his forkful of egg, as if to prove his point. When he is met with only blank stares, however, he goes back to crossly stabbing his bacon.

“If I could only prove the handwriting is different…” he mutters, the statement directed at his hash browns.

“Well, _I_ think it’s sweet,” Louis pipes up dramatically, placing a hand over his heart, “The intimacy and tenderness to call someone pretty names! It’s the height of romance.”

Every member of Samwell Hockey Team (minus Bitty) swivels in their chair to glare at Louis.

“What?” he says innocently.

“Hey Dex,” Nursey begins, stirring his coffee, “Why don’t you call me any pet names?”

Dex chokes on his bacon.

Bully has to slap him on the back a few times. Eyes streaming, Dex disappears behind the flannel sleeves of his shirt for a few seconds. When he re-emerges, his ears are as bright as tomatoes.

“What?” he simply splutters.

“You heard what Louis said. Intimacy and tenderness. We need more of that in our relationship.” Hops can see the cogs working in Nursey’s head. He’s going to mess with Dex, and he’s going to _enjoy every second_.

Dex seems to have forgotten how to speak. “Nursey, we aren’t even dating.” He manages.

“We’re D-men!” Nursey spreads his hands, eyes glinting. “Partners, roommates – it’s basically the same thing.”

“Agreed.” Ollie and Wicks chirp simultaneously, making everyone turn to look at them. They’re still dozing on each other, eyes closed. Wicks is absently munching a brunch bar.

Hops watches it all like a tennis match. Nursey and Dex are fascinating to observe. Two people who don’t seem to get along on the surface, but have a quiet synergy, behind the scenes. Together with Chowder, the three were a seamless team of brains, wit and control. They were simultaneously the biggest trio of disaster Hops had ever seen, but that being said, he rarely saw any of the three without one another.

Chowder’s attention is currently entirely focused on the stand off between his best friends. Hops isn’t sure he’s blinking.

“I’m just gonna keep saying shit until you say it back.” Nursey says, “Studmuffin. Sugarplum. Babycakes.”

Dex is very pink, staring at his plate like he hopes his eggs will eat him instead of the other way around.

“Forget it, Nurse.”

“Aw baby, don’t be like that.” He straight up _winks_ at Dex, and the poor guy inhales so sharply Hops thinks his lungs might collapse. “You’ll crack eventually, my beautiful red fox.”

Dex makes a squeaking sound that might be a laugh. “Because I’m ginger?”

“Also because you’re so foxy.”

“And ‘cause he runs away if you make eye contact.” Chowder adds wickedly. Dex shoots him a look that screams _who’s side are you on?_

Nursey’s eyes are sparkling. His coffee has clearly kicked in – he’s bursting with mischievous energy. He locks eyes with Chowder, who has a similar look on his face. He’s shaking slightly, his face alight. Together, Hops is certain that they are a force to be reckoned with.

 “C’mon Dexy,” says Chowder(incidentally the only person allowed to call Dex this nickname), “We all know you’re such an affectionate bro.”

Dex puts his head in his hands. Nursey drapes an arm across his shoulders.

“He just won’t love me like I deserve.”

“Don’t worry, Derek,” Louis twitters, batting his eyelashes, “I’ll call you all the pet names you want, kay? We’ll have fun, _sötnos_.”

Bully, who Hops knows understands Swedish, snorts into his pancakes. Nursey looks delighted.

“Aw, thanks Louis. You’re a true bro.”

“Anything for you, my little pickled herring.”

Nursey looks less than pleased at that though. He grimaces as the table roars with laughter. Even Dex chuckles, his blush starting to fade. Everyone seems to have completely forgotten about Bitty, who finally hangs up his phone to herd them all, still cackling, out of the breakfast hall.

*

Later, in the haus at dinnertime, Hops is finishing his French homework at the table. He can’t remember the right conjugating verb, and his brain is certifiably fried. He opts instead for watching Dex and Louis, who are quietly murmuring to each other by the sink. Louis is speaking very quickly with animated waves of his hands, while Dex listens attentively, a concentrated frown knitting his fair brows.

“Yo,” Hops calls to them, “What’re you doing?”

Dex rubs the back of his neck, embarrassed, as Louis bounds over to join Hops at the table.

“We’re going to prank Nursey.” He says excitedly. Hops raises his eyebrows at Dex.

“Wow, bro, didn’t think you had it in you.” He says.

Dex blushes. “’M more than just a pretty face.” Hops laughs.

“Sure thing man. Fill me in?”

Louis enthusiastically explains the plan, while a pink tinge floods the freckles on Dex’s cheeks. He looks nervous, but his eyes are dancing.

“It was Louis’ idea.” He says.

“It will be- what is it?- ah yes. _Swasome_.” Louis pats Dex on the shoulder. “You will be fine. You do as we rehearsed.”

Dex nods, and Hops gives him a thumbs up. He hopes the poor guy can pull it off.

“You okay man?” he asks.

“Heh. Yeah. Nurse just likes to push my buttons.” Says Dex.

"But it's not like, bothering you, is it?"

Dex smiles. "No. This is just how we are. I actually think it's pretty funny, but I'm a walking ball of awkward, so..." he trails off, shrugging.

“You and Nursey seem like a good team, right? You work well together.”

Dex huffs a laugh. “We weren’t always like that, believe me.”

At that moment, Nursey, Chowder and Tango traipse into the kitchen, followed by Ollie, Wicks and Bully. They’re all laughing, jostling each other. When Nursey sees Dex he smiles. He saunters over, swinging his arms.

“Hey darlin’,” he says with a winning smile, “How was your day?”

Dex doesn’t look at him for a moment. Hops and Louis wait with bated breath. Louis is literally biting his nails.

Finally Dex looks down into Nursey’s face. The look would be suave and sophisticated, if it wasn’t complimented by a blush so red it would make strawberries giggle. But the smile Dex is giving Nursey is charming, so unlike Dex, that it takes Hops’ breath away for a moment.

“My day was great, sweetpea, how about yours?”

Nursey is frozen. He stares at Dex in complete and utter shock. Dex stares back.

Then everything happens at once.

The silence that had fallen over the room is broken by Chowder shrieking. Hockey bros are running around the kitchen, screaming, yelling. Tango and Hops dash to pick Dex up and bounce him up and down while his face is buried in his hands. Louis is jumping on the spot, clapping his hands. Chowder is on the floor, cackling as tears streak down his face.

All the while, Nursey doesn’t move. He seems to have forgotten how to.

Bitty comes in from Stop ‘n’ Shop five minutes later.

“What on _earth_ is going on?!”

But the boys are too busy crying to answer.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [I have a tumblr](https://dozierosieposie.tumblr.com/)


End file.
